He's the one that says it. Also, this was an upgrade from the original contract. The contract was written for cement pavers. We first discussed going with travertine and expressed our concern about potential slipping. He told us it depends on which kind of travertine and said, "we use tumbled travertine." Then, when pricing it out, he replied with the price of +3 for "tumbled" travertine in the text message. After that and addendum to the contract was written on loose leaf paper with pricing, but there is only says, "travertine."
If I remember correctly, contractual law in my state says if it was a verbal agreement it is contractual if it can be proven there was a verbal agreement. This takes it one step further and shows that he informed us we were paying for tumbled travertine in writing when forming the agreement and what the cost is for that particular upgrade. At the end of the day, it may not really matter as the issue here is he installed a knowingly dangerous material for our pool deck. There was no and is no evidence of our requesting honed and filled travertine.